I didn't get a chance to buy them as I already had a handful of John's remasters to buy, but the Red and Blue albums are already popping up in some stores ahead of their release date on 18/19 October. I found them in JB Hi Fi (an Australia/New Zealand music-movies-electronics retailer) that generally puts stock out when they receive it, even if it's before the set release date.

There's not really much to report on them, the packaging matches last year's remasters and the back covers exactly match the old Red/Blue CDs from 93. Seeing as how they're only $20 here (very cheap for double CDs), I may pick them up just to see what they're like. They're also available in a box set with all four discs, but unfortunately I didn't have the time to check the price.

I don't get it. Weren't all these songs included in the recent remasters?

The red and blue albums are an important part of the Beatles catalog.These releases are good for people who only want the hits.Although I picked up the remasters last year,I did get these.They were two of the early albums in my Beatles collection and I wanted them for sentimental reasons.I already had them on record and cassette,but never bought the cds until now.

Just a pointer, even though the Beatles website says differently (or is just phrased awkwardly), these just reuse the 2009 remasters, they didn't go back and re-remaster these batches of songs. The discs all say "digital remasters copyright 2009", when obviously if they were new remasters it would be copyright 2010 instead (the only mention of 2010 is in regards to the packaging). Just a heads up, as even though I would have always got these [completionist], I'm a little disappointed it's the exact same remasters from last year and not something they've remastered from the compilations' original master tapes (the only incentive being it lets us have a couple of the tracks previously available only in the mono box).